Fix America's trade regime

On the campaign trail, Barack Obama said: "I voted against Cafta, never supported Nafta and will not support Nafta-style trade agreements in the future." The now president has released a statement saying he will unveil the administration's trade policy agenda ahead of the G20 meeting in late September. This is welcome news, given that the Obama administration has been slow to move on this pressing issue – so much so that some critics have suggested that Obama has abandoned this core campaign pledge.

As the administration rightly put top focus on Afghanistan, Iraq and healthcare, Congress has been paving the way for a comprehensive trade reform package that is now ready for the president to incorporate into his new agenda.

Last month the government accountability office assessed the impact of Nafta-style trade agreements with Jordan, Chile, Singapore and Morocco. The key findings are that trade increased between the US and these partners, but labour and environmental records were poor. In Chile for example, promised US funds for labour and environmental monitoring hardly materialised and "consistently stymied efforts to provide Chile FTA-related technical assistance and cooperation".

The report is welcome but fails to analyse some other very important aspects of these agreements. The GAO's indicator of economic success is that trade and investment with these countries increased significantly since the agreements went into force. Mexico's experience shows that increased trade and investment may not translate into increased growth and welfare. Yet, the GAO report falls short of analysing the full impact of the agreements on growth and development.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2009/sep/14/obama-free-trade-nafta

actually sold versus the Imports to this country.